FAMOUS JOIN FANS AND FAMILY OF RAVI SHANKAR AT MEMORIAL

Herbie Hancock, Zubin Mehta and Norah Jones among 1,200

Recounting his first overnight stay at the Shankars’ Encinitas home, Wright told of being alone with Ravi Shankar at the breakfast table.

“After a long silence, he asked me: ‘Do you wash everyday?’ “ Wright recalled. “I said: ‘Yes, yes sir, I do, most days.’ He said: ‘Good, good, good.’ Another silence. Then he turned to me, and asked, with a slight look of concern: ‘All over, or just your hands and face?’ (I said:) ‘Generally, all over, sir.’ ”

Growing more serious, Wright recalled a time when he had to leave the Shankars’ home for London, to deal with a “really troubling” personal situation.

“(Ravi) told me a story about a man he really loved, who he’d put on a pedestal,” Wright said. “And then something happened and that man fell from the pedestal, and dropped down into a pit. Raviji said the point was to try to find the average in people, and to try to love the average in them. And it works.”